SHOWS

CHING CHONG CHINAMAN

Written by Lauren Yee

Presented by Silk Road Theatre Project's Al Kasida Staged Readings Series

July 24, 2009 — July 26, 2009
Storefront Theater
FREE

The ultra-assimilated Wong family is as Chinese American as apple pie: teenager Upton dreams of World of Warcraft superstardom; his sister Desi dreams of early admission to Princeton. Unfortunately, Upton’s chores and homework get in the way of his 24/7 videogaming, and Desi’s math grades don’t fit the Asian American stereotype. Then Upton comes up with a novel solution for both problems: he acquires a Chinese indentured servant, who harbors an American dream of his own.

“This play is too smart and funny to miss.” --nytheatre.com

“Lauren Yee lifts America’s vaunted melting pot off the patriotic flame and splatters it all over the stove.” --Contract Costa Times

“A gleefully irreverent, audaciously un-PC comedy.” --SF Examiner

“...thoughtful and funny, keeps building to a final, surprisingly unsettling conclusion.”
--CurtainUp

Silk Road Theatre Project’s Al Kasida Staged Reading Series is Chicagoland’s first and only staged reading series dedicated to plays featuring characters of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean backgrounds.

Lauren Yee (Playwright) is a 2009 MacDowell Colony fellow, a 2008/09 Dramatists Guild fellow, a member of the 2009 Public Theater Emerging Writers Group. She was a finalist for the Princess Grace Award, the Jerome Fellowship (multi-year), PONY Fellowship, the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, and the Humana Festival’s Heideman Award. She has received commissions from PlayGround, Playwrights Foundation, and the O’Neill Studio at Yale. Other honors include Kumu Kahua Theatre’s Pacific Rim Prize and the Yale Playwrights Festival. She has received fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, and the New York Mills Arts Retreat, and funding from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and Theatre Bay Area. She is a graduate of Yale University and a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Her play Ching Chong Chinaman was a finalist for the 2008 Princess Grace Award and the winner of Kumu Kahua Theatre’s 2007 Pacific Rim Prize. Named one of the top 10 plays of 2008 by the East Bay Express, the play has been produced at Mu Performing Arts in Minneapolis, Impact Theatre in Berkeley, and the New York International Fringe Festival.

This event is presented in association with “Chinese Cultural Week in Chicago: From the Great Wall to the Great Lakes”

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